FreeBasic Version 1.00

[Paul Squires]

FB has finally hit version 1. http://www.freebasic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22858

Congratulations!  Very good compiler that is being updated and maintained daily.

[James Klutho]

Great news.  FreeBasic now supports 64 bit development.  FreeBasic is much more palatable than PureBasic to my tastes.  Maybe Basic is not a dead end after all.  Is the FreeBasic Firefly version (32 bit) able to work with the 64 bit Freebasic compiler?

edit
From reading on the FB forum, it does not look like the 64 bit version comes with Windows headers.  Still work to do.

[Paul Squires]

Just reading about the new version and the discussions about new features and building upon compiler's features really starts to get my blood pumping again for programming. I'm at least going to download the new version and play around with it. It is not strong in the COM area but it has many strengths elsewhere.

If I were you I wouldn't invest too much time into the FireFly version for FreeBasic. It has a lot of shortcomings, one of which is that it is not high dpi aware.

[Jean-pierre Leroy]

Hi Paul,

Any chance to see a new version (or an update version) of FireFly for FreeBasic.

FireFly is fantastic; I use it almost every day with PowerBASIC.

Regards,
Jean-Pierre

[Paul Squires]

Just thinking out loud:

If I were to muster enough motivation, I would first develop an object based GUI framework that was fully unicode compliant and Win32 api based (similar to a MFC or WTL, but obviously not to that level of scope and complexity). I would then use that framework to write an open source JellyFish programmer editor, and finally an open source version of FireFly for FreeBasic. My needs are not Linux/Mac based so I would only concentrate on Windows. If I ever needed it, I would go back to C++ and wxWidgets for Linux/Windows apps. I would even go as far as to write a tcp/ip SQLite client/server to replace SQLitening that would be easier to understand (something I had already started in PowerBasic because I find the SQLitening code base very confusing and the coding style is not object based).

I am so doubtful that we will ever see a new PowerBasic compiler. I hope that I am proven wrong.

[Dennis Hoskins]

I, for one, would immediately donate for (or purchase) a Firefly for Freebasic (open source or commercial).

Dennis

[David Kenny]

I am so doubtful that we will ever see a new PowerBasic compiler

I am curious if you don't know about these two Jim Bailey posts, or if you don't believe Jim Bailey?  Please don't take this as anything other than a request for clarification.

http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pbforums/showthread.php?p=459509#post459509
http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pbforums/showthread.php?p=459508#post459508

Best regards,

David

[Paul Squires]

Hi David,

Reading that post from Jim regarding his belief that 64 bit is unneeded leaves me shaking my head. Seems like he thinks it is simply a money grab by Microsoft and big business? From my standpoint, this is not the "vision" of a leader of a compiler product that wants to be a leading contender in the market. This is another example of PB mentality of always playing catchup. COM support came 10 years too late and we have yet to get any official support for containers for visual ActiveX controls. Reminds me of the "640K ought to be enough for anyone" mentality.

I assume that Tom Hanlin is still working on the compiler. Haven't heard anything there in a long time and after IBasic, I do not have a warm fuzzy feeling.

In my opinion, if it wasn't for the tireless work of Gary Beene, PB would be pretty much a ghost town.

(I hate sounding so pessimistic!!!! Sorry about that. The decline of PB makes me very upset.) 

[James Fuller]

Paul,
  I was excited by the latest announcement until I found out the 64 bit version is FAR from a 1.0 release. No include files except the basic crt's.
Don't get me wrong I do like FreeBasic. It got me back into coding when it first arrived on the scene. I just don't think the 64 bit version should be a 1.0 release.
James

[Paul Squires]

I agree. The 64 bit needs work around the include files. However, it is good to see that at least the guts of the compiler is producing 64 bit code. That's a hell of a start.

[Petrus Vorster]

Thats what I have been saying all along. Something is cooking over at Freebasic which we shouldnt overlook.
And ONE BIG THING about FREEBASIC, is that the guys are WAY MORE OPEN to suggestions and ideas than Powerbasic.
I am almost 100% positive, if a strong group like this smart bunch at this forum have an open heart to heart  with the FB guys over their needs, they will probably be willing to make REAL CHANGES when they discover they have been "discovered".
Producing a kick-@ss free compiler at first that attract the smartest bunch of the powerbasic users (AKA the Firefly forum), will also put them on a guaranteed path for a successful retail version of such a compiler.

A win-win situation if we can be involved somewhow in what they produce, unlike some other compiler programmers we know. 

[Paul Squires]

I've spent a couple of days designing a gui library for FB. It is an object based thin wrapper over the WinAPI. Doing so is helping me (re)learn the FB syntax. Here is a simple example that produces a simple working form on the screen.

The size of the EXE is only 23K.

There is lots of potential when I get this library finished.

Code Select Expand


''
''  TEST PROGRAM TO CREATE SIMPLE FORM
''

   ' Start the GUI
   Dim MyApp As clsWinApp
   
   
   ' Create a Form
   Dim Form1 As clsForm

   With Form1
      .Caption   = "This is my Application"
      .Name      = "FORM1"
      .BackColor = COLOR_BTNFACE
      .WndProc   = @Form1_WndProc 
      .Left      = 100      ' override CW_USEDEFAULT
      .Top       = 100
      .Width     = 800
      .Height    = 500
      .Create
   End With

   MyApp.Run


[James Fuller]

Paul,
  I'm losing a bit of enthusiasm after my initial foray.
Don't you think treating Integer as 8 bytes in the 64 bit version will be a problem?
See my comment here:
http://www.freebasic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=22862

Another roadblock as I see it there is not a good easy to use cross platform gui library available.
gtk on Windows is a pain and Iup is still using gtk2 on Linux.

qt and wxWidgets are the best but they are c++

Now a FreeBasic FireFly targeting gtk+3 might work


James

[Paul Squires]

Hi James, yes I read your post earlier today. I am not worried about the Integer issue yet. As long as there is consistency within the Windows platform, and within the Linux platform itself. I am not doing cross platform so qt or wxWidgets is not going to be a concern for me.

I do like FB's object model. It is easy to use and very similar to C++ paradigm. I do find that it is taking me some time to get used to the stronger typing in FB. In PB you could use a Long or DWord for just about everything but in FB you need to use specific types such as HWND, HANDLE, HBITMAP, LPARAM, WPARAM, etc otherwise you will get compiler warnings.

At least FB is going in the right direction. Not bad for a free, open source BASIC compiler.

[James Fuller]

But there isn't consistency withing the Windows platform.
Fb64 treats Integers as 8bytes where ALL other 64 bit compilers treat it as 4.
I see a problem using 64bit third party libraries.

James